One of my sisters is also an art teacher and has made it her goal to expose her students to as much life and cultureoutside of their small town as possible. Expanding the student’s global community is an important part of our current culture with the workforce changing from local to international before our eyes. I cringe when I hear some of my students talk about traveling to the bordering state as if it was the experience of a lifetime. In the rural town I teach in, students often don’t have the means to take family trips far off places. They are lucky if they make the 2.5 hour drive to New York City once, in their high school career. While I can’t fund raise enough to allow each family in my school the opportunity to travel, I can do my best to expose the students to foreign culture and give them a taste of what life is like in other parts of the world. The project is simple. So many of us already do 2 point perspective projects. This one encourages the students to learn about a different place and the culture they would experience there, and apply this knowledge to create a restaurant design.This is one of those projects that really incorporates a lot of design thinking. Students have to learn about the country, decide where their restaurant will be located and make a lot of key decisions from there. Many of the students struggle initially with the idea that a 5 star restaurant might not be the best choice for a developing country.

Project Essential QuestionsHow can we get students excited about the culture that exists in other parts of the world? How can educators connect drawing with key math vocabulary words?

Students will know and be able to. . .• Understand math concepts and vocabulary associated with perspective drawing.• Interesting facts about a country that they knew little about prior to the assignment.• Conceptualize facts about a country in order to design a restaurant inspired by the country of study.• Practice shading techniques using a light source and cross-hatching.• Be exposed to the basics of landscape architecture.• Study the architect Frank Gehry and discuss his work.